Intricate
by AndromedaeStarStorm69
Summary: The one shot I was meant to write as a prize turned into a fully-fledged story, co-written with my good friend Scarlettia-Von-Rosa. Hey, she's a little perplexing, but so is life. And when she gets dragged into the future to answer a distress call, her life gets a whole lot more Intricate... Rated T for profanity. BrainyXOC, Triplicate GirlXBouncy and Saturn GirlXLightning Lad.


I own nothing. This story is co-written with Scarlettia-Von-Rosa.

Chapter One

Sweaty and tired were two things Kylie Hoshida was not unused to, but they still made her grumpy, and that was _bad _news for anyone who got in her way. After an extremely long day's work, lying down in the scratchy Kansas grass seemed so damn good it made her head spin. Even though one of her favourite shirts was getting covered in dust. She'd long stopped caring about that.

The fair was in town for the sophomores' last night as sophomores (not as complete assholes, however) and Mardi was expecting her to go, but pretending to enjoy herself just for the sake of it really didn't sound so good right now, and there was that beautiful thing called a shower that she just couldn't wait to step into. Hopefully she'd be one of the first to use it-by the time everyone in her makeshift family had, any chance of even lukewarm water was gone and she'd have to shiver through another deluge of ice-cold BRRRR! At any rate, she wasn't going to take chances. Then nothing would stop her from hiding under her covers and sleeping for a very long time.

Perfect.

Getting lightly to her feet, she sprang away, and didn't stop running until she got to Mardi's. Her breath came in short, sharp pants, and her heart thumped like a hammer against cloth, but she took so much joy from the adrenaline pumping around her body that she was happy enough to let a massive grin spread across her face. Summer! Three months of uninterrupted vacation. The fly in the soup-Clark was leaving.

Thinking about it, she sighed unhappily. Her best friend had dropped out of school early to work for a paper in Metropolis. Stupid journalism. Now who would she watch Adam Sandler movies with? She blanked it out of her mind. One last night with him, she was _not_ going to spend it moping.

When she got into the house, she was greeted by the excited squeals and giggles of her younger family members. "Kylie! Come play! Momma let us have paint!" they called. She smiled warmly.

"I can't, little guys, I have to take a shower. I'll play later, 'kay?"

They grumbled about it, but she went on through to the bathroom. "Kylie? Did you say you were going to take a shower?" Mardi asked.

"Yep, I'm going over to Clark's afterwards if that's okay."

"The boiler's broken again! You _will_ have to go over to the Kents' if you want that shower. You can stay till 11 o' clock if and only if it's all right with Martha."

"Okay!"

"Be careful, kiddo."

Back outside, then. Thankfully she kept some clothes at Clark's house; she didn't want to wear the sticky ones.

As soon as she got to her friend's, she let herself in. "Hey, Martha! Is it okay if I use the shower? Our boiler's busted again!" she groaned. Martha Kent smiled and passed her a towel from the basket she was holding. She was used to Kylie's visits and even more used to the fact that the boiler in the white-haired teen's house seemed permanently on the fritz.

"Of course it is. Clark's going to be home soon, he just went to the fair," she replied.

"Thanks, Martha."

It was much calmer in Clark's house than it was in her own. Probably because there weren't thirteen other people living in it, six of whom were little kids. She grabbed a set of her fresh clothes from his bedroom before going into the bathroom and stripping off the sweaty ones-which were beginning to reek just a little. The warm spray of water hit her body refreshingly and almost made her scream in delight. Was there anything better than a shower? She had yet to discover it if there was. She kept a bottle of her favourite bay breeze shower gel here, too, and breathed in the light fragrance as she squeezed some into her hands. Mmm. It smelled like a new day.

Unfortunately she had to tear herself away from the shower after about ten minutes. Shame. Kylie began to dry off, but as she did so, she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror. A glimpse of a short, slender girl with snowy-white hair, bright blue eyes, skin the colour of very milky coffee and features so delicate they could be porcelain. The eyes...her mother's eyes. The eyes she'd looked into as they died. Sometimes she missed Japan, but she missed her parents and baby sister more. Now she was living in America with her Mom's best friend. She shivered-and it had nothing to do with the temperature.

She may have looked like a pixie, but she was anything but. Put it this way-if you pissed her off, you may as well start digging yourself a grave. She could make you feel two inches tall in two seconds flat. One of her glares was enough to make you want to run and hide so badly that if you had a tail it would be all the way up between your legs. If you weren't her friend, you were an enemy and good luck to you then. You were basically and utterly fucked and if you crossed her your life wasn't worth living.

She heard noises downstairs. Good. Clark was back.

Slipping into her good white jeans, a black grey-streaked shirt that stopped just above her waist, a ruffled grey skirt over that and six of her belts over THAT, she tied her Converse back on and padded down the stairs with the grace her Japanese heritage had gifted her with. The smell of Martha's cooking brought a smile to her lips. Almost as good as her shower. Stretching slightly, like a snow leopard just waking up from a quick doze, she walked into the kitchen with a proud walk that said, 'Don't mess with me.'

And almost fell over.

Sitting at the table were three people so weird-looking that when she exclaimed, "Holy fucking shit!" she realised she had subsided into Japanese, as she always did when she was especially freaked out. One guy was _green_, for Pete's sake! The larger one in the blue Spandex, eating a piece of pie, looked at her with interest and gave a low whistle.

"They don't make girls like that in New Metropolis," he mumbled. Kylie recovered enough to glare icily at him. "Hey, I'm trying to be friendly."

"Whatever. Where'd you pitch up from, Crazytown? Or are you just walking around subversively mocking normality?" she asked sarcastically. The green guy looked miffed.

"This coming from a 21st Century girl who doesn't know the meaning of anything she just said," he muttered irritably. She got so mad then, an actual red haze discoloured her vision and her lips parted and exposed her teeth a little.

"Are. You. Calling. Me. STUPID?!" He had to take a step back, looking quite frightened. "How DARE you?! I have an MD _and _a PhD from Dartmouth fucking University in fucking New Hampshire on a fucking SCHOLARSHIP and I'm fifteen fucking years old, asshole! I worked my ASS off for that! Stick that in your fucking pipe and smoke it!" she screeched.

"There's no need for that sort of profanity. I'm sorry if I have offended you," he answered, stiff.

"Offended? Oh, no. I'm not offended. I'm amazingly, homicidally, bat-shit, psychotically MAD! You little green punk, I'll-"

"Kyles, cut it out. Didn't you take your happy pills this morning?" Clark inquired, amused, from behind her. She swivelled around to give him her patented 'Ball-Crusher' look. "Yeah, yeah." He looked past her to the freaks. "How did _you_ get-never mind. Okay, even if you are from the future, and I'm not saying that you are, why me?" he asked them.

Kylie was completely lost. Future? WHAT?! Well, it kinda explained things just a bit. The green guy (who, she noticed now, looked an awful lot like a robot...) jumped in. "We belong to the Legion of Superheroes. We want you to join us," he explained.

"Whoa, the whatty-what-what what?" she demanded.

"It doesn't involve you," he said prissily. "In fact, you can leave now."

"Wait just one damn minute-"

"Brainy, you don't have to be rude," the girl with long, blonde hair reprimanded. He looked indignant.

"She started it!"

"I don't care."

"Actually, Brainiac 5, you started it. You called her stupid," Blue Spandex (her name for the kinder weirdo) reminded him. She sighed crossly and fingered the gold flower charm necklace around her throat. Clark shook his head, used to the arguments that his best friend could induce when around other people.

"Clark Kent, superhero...right," he muttered to himself. Blue Spandex cut off the squabble and turned to him.

"Why not? Super strength, super hearing, heat vision, you can fly..."

"First, how did you know about that stuff? And second, I can't fly."

"He kind of turns into a little bitch when you mention those unmentionable things," Kylie informed them sweetly. Clark scowled at her.

"You don't like it when I bring up yours, either." She flushed red with fury and embarrassment, and Green Dickhead Weirdo (she was so gonna stick to that name now he'd pissed her off) looked surprised.

"Wait, you have powers too?"

"Yeah. What's it to you, Oh Green Annoying One?!" she growled. Blue Spandex guffawed and nearly choked on his food.

"She's got spunk," he chortled in utter delight. His friend groaned in annoyance before his gaze rested on his insultress, who had her hands on her hips and was tapping her foot, waiting.

"So what can you do?"

"It's none of your fucking business."

"It is if you can be of some use to us," he said bluntly. She mumbled the worst Japanese swear words she knew under her breath before starting.

"I can heal people. As long as they're not dead, I can heal them of almost any injury. And I can shield people. And if the enemy doesn't get the damn message and tries to attack me again, I can split them in half. With humans I don't use that unless I absolutely have to," she clarified. "But, to be honest, I'm not as much use as Clark here." He considered this for a moment.

"Well, if you can keep your attitude in check and tone down on the profanity, this invitation extends to you as well." Clark's eyes locked to hers.

"Kyles...I don't know about this."

The girl in the pink jumpsuit spoke up again. "Don't you both want to find out more about your powers? Come with us and you won't have to hide them anymore."

Kylie was torn on the inside. Who else got an opportunity like this? Her powers and Clark's could be used to do real good if what they were saying was true. To be free from prejudice and fear...But what about Mardi and the kids? Her family? She couldn't just leave. She had responsibilities, people who depended on her here.

What was left of her old life was here, a time sweeter and more innocent before everything had turned fucking psychotic.

"Even if I wanted to, I can't just leave," Clark pointed out.

"Neither can I," Kylie agreed. "Clark has his new job, and I have my family."

"They won't even notice you're gone," Green Dickhead Weirdo announced with the first real smile she'd seen on his face.

"What do you mean?" the two of them said in unison. She raised an eyebrow and continued. "How do you plan on somehow erasing us from existence so that no-one notices we're bloody missing?"

"Come help us and we can bring you back to the exact moment you left," he promised.

"You can do that?" Again in unison.

"Okay, this is just getting annoying," she huffed. Blue Spandex lifted the lid of a pot bubbling on the stove.

"Just in time for chicken and dumplings," he smiled.

"Clark? Do your friends want to stay for supper?" Martha called down to them.

"Haven't either of you ever wondered what the future holds for you? Now's your chance to find out!" the girl enthused. As Clark thought about it, Kylie had already made up her mind.

"I'm coming. Clark?" A smile appeared on his face.

"I'm going to the future, Ma!" he shouted up to Martha. "I'll be back in a few minutes."

"Take a sweater!"

'Aw, typical Martha,' Kylie thought to herself.

Green Dickhead Weirdo typed in something on his...arm (yeah, suspicion confirmed-definitely a robot) and a bright yellow light filled the room blindingly, leaving behind a floating sphere that looked like glass but probably wasn't. As she stepped into it, a rush of nervous excitement filled her. The future...heck, why not?


End file.
